Swift
foxes are the smallest wild canid in North America, weighing between
4-6 pounds–about the size of a typical house cat, and can reach speeds
up to 40 miles per hour. Photo courtesy of the Endangered Wolf Center.

Once considered abundant in the short grass prairies from central Alberta though the Great Plains to Texas, the swift fox was wiped out of 90 percent of its historical habitat by the latter half of the twentieth century as a consequence of the increase in agriculture and the disappearance of the native prairies.

Thankfully, conservation efforts
by the Endangered Wolf Center and many more organizations, individuals,
and wildlife management agencies have helped swift foxes make a
comeback by reintroducing them into their native habitat. Today, it is
estimated that swift foxes occupy about 40 percent of their historic
range.

Although the future is promising for the swift fox, they are not out
of the woods yet. Habitat loss and climate change remain very real
threats to the species. And an imminent new danger–the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline–could bring the world’s dirtiest oil right through the foxes' remaining habitat.

In January 2012, following the opposition raised by hundreds of
thousands of concerned citizens across the country, President Obama
denied Canadian pipeline giant TransCanada’s request to build the
2,000-mile Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada to refineries on
the Gulf Coast.

Now, TransCanada is back, after deciding to split
the project in two–a northern, transborder segment from Alberta to
Steele City, Nebraska and a southern segment from Cushing, Oklahoma to
the Gulf Coast–in an attempt to move the project piecemeal and evade meaningful review by the U.S. State Department.

The "new" route for the 1,200-mile northern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline does not solve the problems raised by the original route that President Obama rejected. It would still cross vital wildlife habitat and water resources, expand habitat-destroying tar sands operations in Canada, and accelerate climate change.

There are only two weeks left to weigh in with the U.S. State Department--we
must make sure they conduct a thorough review of Keystone XL that
reveals the far-reaching and unacceptable impacts to swift foxes and
many more precious wildlife.